When President Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday that one of his two daughters had received two doses of the vaccine, had a slight fever, but is now feeling well, it is at least in part a way to market Russia as a world leader in drug development.
The vaccine has been adequately tested, it is safe, it provides immunity and no serious side effects, Putin said. And today, the Russian Ministry of Health approved the vaccine for large-scale use.
The vaccine that has been approved has been developed by the ancient Gamaleja Institute in Moscow. But also scientific representatives of the institute have previously said that it would probably take a little longer before sufficient tests had been carried out.
So-called "phase 3 tests" of the Russian vaccine have not yet been launched. Such tests mean that tens of thousands of subjects are vaccinated and monitored for a long time. Approving a new vaccine after only a couple of months of testing on a few hundred subjects is directly irresponsible, many believe.
"Sputnik moment"The head of the Russian fund that finances the development of the vaccine, Kirill Dmitriev, has called the whole thing a "Sputnik moment". He refers to the fact that the whole world was taken to bed when the Soviet Union launched a satellite into space in 1957. Russia is now the first in the world with a vaccine to stop covid-19.
If it turns out that the vaccine works and does not lead to serious side effects, it can be a decisive success in limiting the pandemic. Although it will probably be months before we know if Russia has been in too much of a hurry, or if it is the skeptics who are too distrustful.